A while back I read a novel where one of the characters was a full-time shyster, the kind who sells fake college diplomas and such. He made himself into a television preacher and every few months he announced the end of the World. His customers then sent him extra money to buy their way into heaven, and when "Doomsday" arrived the shyster invented a "reprieve". This went on indefinitely. So I figure yesterday was a huge payday for some such charlatans!

(The amusing part being the fact that there really are people so gullible. Schadenfreude, you know. )

"Many call Apophis the doomsday asteroid because it was initially believed there was a small 2.9-percent chance of it hitting Earth in the year 2029. That information was later refined, with the asteroid actually passing by at a distance of about 22,000 miles. Apophis will near Earth again in the year 2036, but no one knows how close it will come to our planet."

Ugly Dougly wrote:"Many call Apophis the doomsday asteroid because it was initially believed there was a small 2.9-percent chance of it hitting Earth in the year 2029. That information was later refined, with the asteroid actually passing by at a distance of about 22,000 miles. Apophis will near Earth again in the year 2036, but no one knows how close it will come to our planet."

That's about where we have our geo-stationary satellites.

Okay, go ahead and panic.

those measurements, IIRC, don't allow for gravitational distrubances anywhere in it's orbit. or even the effect of this pass with Earth.